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Travertine in Frisco, Your Great Decorating Opportunity

They say your home is your castle. It certainly is a place of refuge from the outside world, a place in which to relax and enjoy leisure. We eat, sleep and watch television at home – even surf the Web there. It makes sense that we would want our homes to be comfortable, beautiful, and still be easy to maintain.

Travertine flooring fulfills these criteria: it is highly durable and lends natural beauty to a home, and much easier to maintain and keep clean than carpeting. Conveniently, it is one of the few types of flooring that works as well for interiors as it does for exteriors.

This is natural stone, and as such, travertine works best when professionally installed, as it is heavy (a 12″ x 12″ sheet of travertine mosaic can weigh as much as 5 lbs.) and thick (tiles are 0.5″ thick and pavers are 1.25″). There are various flooring stores in Frisco, TX that can help with this, none better, though, than Peek’s Flooring Company

Several factors contribute to make travertine in Frisco an ideal flooring product for Texas. Looks, strength, and long-lasting quality are the hallmarks of travertine flooring:

Stylish: This is one of the oldest building materials we have (very popular in Ancient Rome, later used by sculptors such as Michelangelo, used to build castles like Burghausen in Bavaria), and its presence in a flooring installation can add an antique feel and an air of prestige to the environment. At the same time, it draws attention in a subtle, subdued way. It displays mild tones swirling in its hazy, shifting surface effects. Each piece is unique, like a nature-formed work of earth art, making any travertine floor a one-of-a-kind installation.

Subdued: Another style effect of travertine lies in the unique power of natural stone coupled with reserved dignity that comes from the soft palette of colors in its spectrum. It comes in tans and beiges, grays and speckled off-white hues, bringing the power and stability of the earth to a flooring installation without overwhelming a room with dramatic colors.

Durability: Hard tile materials such as travertine take a beating without showing significant damage from scratches, cracks, or chips. Over time, a weathering effect appears, giving each individual piece a distinct character reminiscent of ancient architecture. Polished and honed flooring materials carry a risk of scratching, while natural-finish tiles are more resistant to damage and blemishes.

Long-lasting: All flooring materials need regular maintenance and care, but travertine can last for decades and still look beautiful. The weathering effect that occurs with years of use can be attractive, but if you wish, you can prevent weathering with a periodic application of stone-sealing agent.

Ease of repair: Since travertine comes in tile form, when a piece breaks it can be removed and replaced. If you’re installing a new floor, be sure to keep a few extra tiles for perfectly color-matched repairs.

The Nature of Travertine

Travertine is porous. Its pocked surface gives it a distinctive natural, chaotic texture. Travertine is a sedimentary rock, a kind of limestone that forms around mineral spring deposits, as seen in the two photos of locations on the Green River in Utah and in Yellowstone National Park. In terms of flooring, travertine is softer than igneous rock and is laced with holes and pockets created by bubbling carbon dioxide. This is what makes travertine so porous. It also represents added maintenance issues that are not found with man-made flooring and even some forms of natural stone.

To overcome this, the holes in travertine tiles are filled in the factory with resins that blend with the surface and are difficult to detect, increasing its durability. It might not be as hard as diamonds, topaz or quartz, but is much harder than gypsum or talc.

Travertine ranks lower than marble in terms of hardness. But still, travertine is a stone, and stone will always be more durable than most interior floor coverings like engineered wood, laminate, vinyl, and ceramic or porcelain.

Four Types of Travertine Surfaces

In its natural state, travertine is rough-textured. Polishing travertine changes its nature. With polishing, the appearance of the stone changes – colors become more vivid and the look is richer. Polished travertine has a more glossy finish that reflects light from the room more than tumbled or brushed travertine. The four states of travertine tiles can appeal to all tastes.

Surface

Description

Comments

Polished

Extremely glossy and light-reflective, this stone has been filled, polished to its maximum smoothness, and sealed.

Best travertine surface for resisting stains. Very slippery when wet. Do not use outside.

Honed

Filled and lightly polished. Honed travertine has a matte-like appearance and is less slick than polished travertine.

Honed is the most popular type of interior travertine. For many, it represents a sweet spot between polished and tumbled travertine.

Tumbled

Rounded corners and edges and subtle colors.

Travertine is tumbled in a machine with other stones to gently round off the corners and edges. Tumbled travertine has an older, antique look and provides ample traction for outdoor surfaces.

Brushed

Brushed travertine has the most subtle colors of all types of travertine. Brushed travertine can either be tumbled or not.

The surface of the travertine is treated with wire brushes to produce a flat, matte surface.

What to Know before Putting Travertine in Your Home

The fact that Travertine is highly durable does not mean it requires no maintenance. It can alo provide its own unique challenges in the installation, meaning you will want help in putting it in.

Maintenance: While these tiles are solid, strong, and durable, they also have microscopic pores in their surface that can allow spilled liquids and staining agents to seep into the material. Applying a penetrating sealer followed by a barrier surface sealer during installation resolves this problem. Afterwards, periodically applying these sealers throughout the life of the floor will keep it looking good. Re-seal more often if you want to maintain the glossy original finish of the material.

Heaviness: Travertine tiles tend to be heavy, making installation difficult and time-consuming enough that you should leave it to professionals. The weight of the flooring also means the flooring under-structure should be strong and stiff enough to support the flooring without excessive bowing or flexing.

Expense: Travertine falls in the mid-range of natural stone options but can be higher cost than many other flooring materials such as vinyl, laminate or carpeting. As with any flooring installation, you will want to consider, in addition to the cost of tile, costs for installation materials, including adhesive and grout, as well as professional labor.

Coldness: Like most solid-stone materials, travertine flooring retains heat well, but it also retains cold. On chilly mornings the floor can be cold on bare feet. Minimize this with area rugs placed in strategic positions. On the other hand, travertine tile is a good option for flooring over radiant (in-floor) heating systems. Once the tile heats up it is an excellent conductor of heat to help warm up the room.

Whom to Rely on for Travertine

As you consider the various flooring stores in Frisco, TX, we hope you will think first of Peek’s Floor Company. Peek’s is your source for travertine in Frisco, and not only travertine. Whatever your needs are for flooring installation in Frisco, TX, nobody can beat Peek’s for the quality of their service, the level of care they give to your needs and well-being, and the great pricing of their products and services.